Threats to Users of Adult Websites in 2018 by Kaspersky Lab.
2018 was a year that saw campaigns to decrease online pornographic content and traffic. For example, one of the most adult-content friendly platforms – Tumblr – announced it was banning erotic content (even though almost a quarter of its users consume adult content). In addition, the UK received the title of ‘The Second Most Porn-Hungry Country in the World‘ and is now implementing a law on age-verification for pornography lovers that will prohibit anyone below the age of 18 to watch this sort of content. This is potentially opening a world of new tricks for scammers and threat actors to take advantage of users. In addition, even commercial giant Starbucks declared a ‘holy war’ on porn as it was revealed that many visitors prefer to have their coffee while consuming adult content, rather than listening to music or reading the latest headlines on news websites.
Such measures might well be valid, at least from a cybersecurity perspective, as the following example suggests. According to news reports last year, an extremely active adult website user, who turned out to be a government employee, dramatically failed to keep his hobby outside of the workplace. By accessing more than 9,000 web pages with adult content, he compromised his device and subsequently infected the entire network with malware, leaving it vulnerable to spyware attacks. This, and other examples confirm that adult content remains a controversial topic from both a social and cybersecurity standpoint.
It is no secret that digital pornography has long been associated with malware and cyberthreats. While some of these stories are now shown to be myths, others are very legitimate. A year ago, we conducted research on the malware hidden in pornography and found out that such threats are both real and effective. One of the key takeaways of last year’s report was the fact that cybercriminals not only use adult content in multiple ways – from lucrative decoys to make victims install malicious applications on their devices, to topical fraud schemes used to steal victims’ banking credentials and other personal information – but they also make money by stealing access to pornographic websites and reselling it at a cheaper price than the cost of a direct subscription.
The U.S. Government, being itself untrustworthy, doesn’t trust Kaspersky Lab. There’s an odd logic to that position, tinged by a desire for a domestic cybersecurity industry. A domestic industry that would be subject to the orders of the U.S. Government. What it now suspects of Kaspsersky.
You can read Kaspersky’s Three common myths about Kaspersky Lab, or ask yourself, would I cheat while holding 6.25 percent of the world market for Windows anti-malware software? If the answer is no, then trust Kaspersky Lab until you have facts that compel a different choice.
The report details which types porn carry the greatest risk for malware and common techniques used to deliver the same. (You are using a VPN and a Tor browser to view porn. Yes?)
I trust Kaspersky because unlike the U.S. Government, it has no record of running porn sites to entrap viewers. (The FBI likely ran nearly half the child porn sites on the dark web in 2016.) Enjoy the report.